{"id":68,"date":"2015-03-05T14:02:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T20:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doylecorder.com\/?p=68"},"modified":"2015-03-05T14:02:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T20:02:53","slug":"i-had-been-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/?p=68","title":{"rendered":"I had been there…"},"content":{"rendered":"

3 times over the course of three years I uprooted myself from my \u201cnormal\u201d life.\u00a0 I left my home, the place I\u2019m most comfortable, the place where I have dominion (well most of the time).\u00a0 I left my country.\u00a0 A place where I understand most of the customs, where I understand the language, a place where I nearly always feel safe.\u00a0 I got on a plane and traveled\"The-load-is-getting-bigger-and-bigger_thumb.jpg\"<\/a> a great distance to a place that I knew I would love, but I didn\u2019t realize how much I would love the people.\u00a0 Going that great distance changed me.\u00a0 It changed how I watch the news of the world.\u00a0 It changed how I look at my own culture.\u00a0 It changed what I think about and pray about. I talked about it with the people closest to me and people that I hardly knew.\u00a0 My trips to the Philippines changed me.<\/p>\n

This change in me was most noted when the news of Hurricane Yolanda came to light.\u00a0 \"\"A huge Hurricane, maybe the largest ever, was bearing down on a place that was on the other side of the world from me.\u00a0 Normally, this would just be a blip of news that I may or may not notice.\u00a0 If there was a connection to me through friends or my church, I might donate to a relief cause or say a prayer for them.\u00a0 But normally, I wouldn\u2019t care much for the pain happening such a great distance from me.\u00a0 But I had been there<\/b>.\u00a0 I had walked with the people whom the storm was bearing down on.\u00a0 I had worshiped with them, worked with them, ate with them, I became friends with them.\u00a0 And because I had been there, I cared\u2026.oh I cared.\u00a0 I wanted to do anything in my (limited) power to help them.\u00a0 I wanted to raise money yes, but more than that, I wanted to BE WITH THEM.\u00a0 I wanted to return.<\/p>\n

This morning, I realized that in this, I can identify with God.\u00a0 He has been here.<\/b>\u00a0 He left his home, he left the most glorious place ever imagined. He left his power and became a poor baby with no power. He walked with us, worked with us, worshiped with us.\u00a0 He became friends with us, he wanted the best for us in so many ways. Then he left. He could have stayed but he left knowing greater things would happen.<\/p>\n

This morning, as I was reading and praying and worshiping\u2026preparing to lead the body here in worship, I was reminded by Him that when we are in the path of a great storm, He wants nothing more than to help us, to protect us, to BE WITH US<\/b>, to return.<\/p>\n

I praise God this morning\u2026because even though he is a great distance from us\u2026HE\u2019S BEEN HERE!<\/b> And he loves me and cares for me and is with me\u2026.and will return<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Praise God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 times over the course of three years I uprooted myself from my \u201cnormal\u201d life.\u00a0 I left my home, the place I\u2019m most comfortable, the place where I have dominion (well most of the time).\u00a0 I left my country.\u00a0 A … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69,"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions\/69"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doylecorder.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}